Brenda Huneycutt, PhD, is a senior director at the Milken Institute, where she oversees Milken Institute Health work internationally across all four Milken Institute Health portfolios – FasterCures, the Future of Aging, Feeding Change, and Public Health. Prior to joining Milken Institute Health, Huneycutt was director of global regulatory policy at Merck and Co., focusing on shaping the regulatory environment for vaccines and infectious disease treatments and exploring regulatory flexibilities used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, Huneycutt worked as director of regulatory innovation at FasterCures and as vice president of regulatory strategy and FDA policy at the consulting firm Avalere Health, where she advised a variety of healthcare clients on FDA and scientific research policy, FDA approval strategy, and due diligence assessment to inform investment decisions. Huneycutt has also worked as a patent attorney focused on biotech and pharmaceutical litigation and as a research scientist studying cell cycle control in yeast model systems. Huneycutt holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a JD from the George Washington University School of Law, and a master’s in public health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.